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Catholic Meditation - 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Martin Jumbam

Mother Church celebrate Sunday, August 27, 2017, as the twenty first Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Listen, Lord, and answer me. Save your servant who trusts in you. I call to you all day long, and have mercy on me, O Lord.”

The main theme of this day’s Mass is the mission Christ entrusts to Peter and fellow apostles to preach the Gospel to the four corners of the world. Even though Peter is weak, Christ still makes him the head of his Church – the first Pope ever -- and gives them the exacting task to go out and preach the good news from Judea and Samaria to the four corners of the world. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah condemns the rulers of the southern kingdom of Judah for their disobedience of God’s will when they seek an alliance with Egypt against Assyria, thus contravening Isaiah’s divinely inspired advice of neutrality. For this, the king is replaced by Eliakim on whose shoulder the key of the house of David is placed; an act reminiscent of what Jesus does to Peter in the Gospel of this day. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans in the second reading, sings a hymn of praise to God, creator of everything, who is compassionate and merciful to everyone. He is grateful to be called the apostle of Christ. Let us pray in the course of this Eucharist for the grace to recognize Christ for who he really is: the Messiah, Son of the living God.

First Reading: Isaiah 22: 19-23.

Thus says the Lord to Shebna, who is over the household: “I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station. In that day I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and I will bind your belt on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honour to his father’s house.”V/ The word of the Lord.R/ Thanks be to God.

Comment

The meditation of this day comes from the time when the southern kingdom of Judah was threatened by a powerful neighbour, Assyria. The prophet Isaiah saw that the real threat to the life of Judah was not simply the might of Assyria, but Judah’s own sin and disobedience to God, and their lack of trust in him. He condemns Shebna, a foreigner who occupies a high position in the royal court, for being arrogant and for misleading king Hezekiah to seek a military alliance with the Egyptians against the Assyrians. Isaiah is seeking a policy of non-alignment that would have spared Jerusalem from attack from the Assyrians. His divinely inspired advice was ignored by Shebna, the king’s trusted adviser. He then tells Shebna that he will be dismissed from office and replaced by Eliakim, who will head a royal embassy charged with negotiating peace with the Assyrians during the siege of Jerusalem. It is on his shoulder that God will place the key of the house of David; “he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut and none shall open” (v. 22).

This verse is reminiscent of what Jesus says to Peter when he gives him the keys of the kingdom: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16: 19).

The prophet is calling the people and their leaders to a life of righteousness and justice. He warns them that failure to listen to God would bring doom and destruction. He then foretells a time of world-wide peace and the coming of a descendant of David who would be the ideal king.

What lesson can we learn from this reading? We learn that everyone, especially our leaders in political, civil and religious life, are accountable to God for their acts. No matter how powerful, politically or economically, they may be, they are ultimately accountable to God Almighty for their actions. Hence, the wisdom for our leaders, temporal or ecclesial, to always turn to God for his blessing.

Let us pray to God to bless our leaders: “Almighty and ever-living God, in whose hands are the rights and hopes of every people, look graciously on those who govern us, that in lasting peace they may continue to promote social progress and religious freedom for all our people. We make our prayer through Christ, the Lord. Amen.”

Second Reading: Romans 11: 33-36

O depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.V/ The word of the Lord.R/ Thanks be to God.

Comment

God’s admirable goodness, to both Jews and Gentiles alike, permitting them to disobey and then taking pity on them in their wretchedness, causes the Apostle to the Gentiles to pour out his heart in words reminiscent of the Book of Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts you’re your thoughts” (Is 55: 8-9). If God’s designs are always difficult to understand since he is beyond our comprehension, we do realize that the very things which seem to frustrate his plans actually serve to forward them. The correct attitude we should adapt to God’s designs is humility. It is in humility that Saint Paul sings a hymn of praise and gratitude to God for his goodness and generosity to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. He says that even though we are sinners, God is still good to us. He shows us his compassion and understanding and is always willing and ready to forgive us our sins when we go back to him. God’s ways are beyond our understanding and the correct attitude we should adopt to his designs is one of humility.

Despite Israel’s failings, Paul says that God still proposes to bring the Jews back to his fold through the pagans who profess his name. It is in the same way that through Christ, God draws to himself all the nations of the earth. Paul remembers how Isaiah praised God for so wonderfully promising renewal of his blessings when he brought his people out of Egypt.

What do we learn from this passage? We learn that God brings everything into being and draws all of us to himself with compassion and understanding. Let us continue to give thanks to God, who is the incarnation of mercy, compassion and understanding. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 16: 13-20.

At that time, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and other Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.V/ The Gospel of the Lord.R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Comment

In the Gospel of this Mass, Jesus is faced with a pressing and demanding problem. His time on earth is short and he is eager to know if anyone has understood his mission at all. Was there anyone who had recognized him for who he really was? Were there people who would continue his mission after he no longer was in the world? If no one knew exactly who he was, and if there was no one to continue his mission on earth, then his work on earth would be in vain. So Jesus was determined to find out what people thought about him.

His apostles and disciples were quick to tell him that people were comparing him to John the Baptist, the very John the Baptist who had explicitly indicated that someone else was coming after him who was greater than him, someone whose sandals he, John, was not fit to untie. That someone is Christ the Saviour. Some compared him to the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah, who announced the imminent arrival of a Messiah. What these people did not know is that Jesus is not the announcer of the Messiah, he is the Messiah in person.

You would think that the apostles and disciples, members of Christ’s inner circle, would have a clearer idea of who he truly was. That proved not to be the case at all. Many of them joined him for various reasons. To an apostle like Simon the Zealot, Jesus was the great revolutionary he and his political followers had been waiting for to save Israel from Roman oppression. We hear Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus telling the unknown stranger, who turns out to be the Risen Lord in person, that they had been expecting Christ to redeem Israel from its oppressors (Lk 24:21). For their part, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, saw in Christ the future king of Israel and they were eager, through their mother’s intervention, to have an honourable place on the left and on the right side of the Lord (Mt 20:21).

When Christ asked them who people said he was, the apostles were eager to relate the views of others; but when he asked them who they themselves thought he was, there must have been an uneasy silence among them until Peter broke in with an appropriate answer: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter receives his answer from God the Father himself and Christ acknowledges this by telling him “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Mt 16: 16). So when Christ makes Peter the rock on which he builds his church, he is merely confirming his Father’s choice. Like Eliakim in the first reading, who is given the keys to open and close access to the king, Peter is given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He is given authority to “bind” and to “loose”, that is, whatever he forbids on earth is forbidden in heavenly, and whatever he approves on earth receives reciprocal approval in heaven. Christ will later extend this authority to all of his disciples shortly before he goes up to heaven when tells them “I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall e considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loose in heaven” (Mt 18:18).

After his resurrection, Christ gives supreme authority to Peter to rule his Church when he tells him “Feed my lambs. … Feed my sheep” (Jn 21: 15-18). This authority is passed onto Peter’s successors down through history. The Bishop of Rome, the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, is Peter’s visible successor among us. As the Fathers of the First Vatican Council tell us, “Whoever succeeds Peter in this Chair holds Peter’s primacy over the whole Church according to the plan of Christ himself.” The spiritual powers given to Peter are for the good of the whole Church, and since the Church has to last until the end of time, these powers are also handed down to Peter’s successors. The Fathers of Vatican II tell us that “The Roman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful” (Lumen Gentium, 23).

Let us pray to God to strengthen our Pope so that he can continue to lead and guide our Church with courage and determination. “Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to Your shepherd, Pope Francis, a spirit of courage and right judgement, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care may he, as successor to the apostle Peter and vicar of Christ, build Your church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace for all the world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.